Packers pick up fourth-straight win
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Tom Crabtree caught the ball at the Green Bay 45 and chugged up field, looking over one shoulder and then the other to be sure the two Arizona Cardinals who were giving chase were still behind him. They were. Barely. Crabtree had just enough gas to “outrace” the Cardinals, tumbling into the end zone for a 72-yard touchdown at the end of the third quarter that sealed Green Bay’s 31-17 win Sunday. Arizona had pulled within a touchdown before Crabtree’s score, but could manage only one more first down the rest of the game.
The touchdown was Green Bay’s longest play of the season and Crabtree’s longest TD catch since “probably high school.”
“Honestly, I’m still really tired,” said Crabtree. “I need to spend this bye week doing some gassers or something.”
The Packers (6-3) take a four-game winning streak into their bye week, which they badly need after losing three more players — Clay Matthews (hamstring), Jordy Nelson (ankle) and Bryan Bulaga (hip) — to injuries during the game.
“We need to get healthy, that’s what bye weeks are for,” said Packers coach Mike McCarthy. “We’re 6-3 and we’ve got time to evaluate, stepback, clean somethings up and get ready for ... the grind.”
Arizona (4-5) is off next weekend, too, and the Cardinals need to find a way to regroup after dropping their fifth straight. John Skelton threw for more than 300 yards, and he was able to find enough holes in the Green Bay defence for big gains time and again. But the Packers did a good job bottling up Larry Fitzgerald and Arizona’s other receivers had too many drops.